A Fact Sheet on Homeless and Unemployed Persons in Arlington County Virginia

       l.  Over 500 people were counted as homeless in Arlington in January 2009 (a 25-percent rise from January 2008), according to the  Metro Washington Council of Governments  (http://www.mwcog.org)

 

2. In September 2009 over 5,500 Arlington residents were officially unemployed and many more thousands unable to find full-time work, according to data of U.S. Department of Labor.

 

3. Average rents in Arlington in 2009 exceed $1,700 a month, and require an income in excess of $65,000 a year to be considered affordable.  Source: Arlington County Dept. of Community Planning, Housing and Development.

 

4. The county’s one current winter shelter can only accommodate 73 people in a dilapidated building, and is open only from November through March. Source: “In Arlington, Need for Emergency Shelter Swells,” the Wash. Post, Dec. 3, 2009.

 

5. Many unsheltered people must live outdoors in Arlington parks and open space.

 

6. Fair market rent for a 1-bedroom apartment in the No. Virginia in 2009 was $1,131 per month; to be affordable a worker needs to earn $22 an hour and work 40 hours weekly to afford this rent.  Source: National Low Income Housing Coalition, Out of Reach, 2009, and SALT (Social Action Linked Together).

 7. . In Northern Virginia in 2008, the average retail salesperson, cashier, waiter and waitress, fast food cook, janitor, hotel worker, nursing aide, janitor and maid earned less than $13 an hour.  Source:  State of Virginia, VEC Occupational Employment Survey, May 2008.

Published by:  the Arlington Green Party, P.O. Box  50573, Arlington, VA 22205

For more information email info@Reeder4Arlington.org